В библиотеке СЮ открылась выставка редких Beatles-сувениров от выпускницы университета

A vast array of vintage Beatle-related memorabilia and print media donated by SIU Carbondale alumna Anne Chamberlain will be on display in Morris Library beginning Friday, Aug. 21. (Photo by Russell Bailey) August 14, 2026 SIU alumna, filmmaker Anne Chamberlain to discuss, share Beatles memorabilia Aug. 21 CARBONDALE, Ill. — Award-winning filmmaker and Southern Illinois University Carbondale alumna Anne Chamberlain will share her passion for the Beatles next week as part of the opening reception for an exhibition in Morris Library’s Hall of Presidents and Chancellors. “‘Having Read the Book’: The Beatles in Print Media,” is from a collection of Beatles memorabilia that Chamberlain donated to the library’s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). The exhibition on the Beatles will include vintage books, magazines, newsprint, board games and trading cards that celebrate Southern Illinois as the site of the “First Beatle Landing in America, where their story in the U.S. begins.” Chamberlain will discuss the collection and her work with Beatle George Harrison’s sister, Louise Harrison Caldwell, at the reception from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 21, in the library’s Hall of Presidents and Chancellors. The exhibition will run from Aug. 21 through December. The reception is free and open to the public. Film success, Beatles passion Chamberlain earned her master’s degree in cinema at SIU in 1995. Her media career covers filmmaking that examines issues of gender, race, class and sexuality. She helped launch the Queer Studies program and other courses at The Harvey Milk Institute and City College of San Francisco and helped introduce online courses at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. And, Chamberlain has a “passion for the Fab Four.” She’s taught “The Beatles in the Visual Arts” at the Academy of Art University. Before that, she was Louise Harrison’s assistant in 2002, living and traveling with her. “One can discover an entire history of 20th century art and culture through research into one band,” Chamberlain said. Important collection The Beatles material and Chamberlain’s papers serve as the “foundational collection” in the center’s Southern Illinois Queer Archives (SIQA), said Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm, associate dean for Library Affairs. Juniper Oxford, coordinator of SIU’s Paulette Curkin Pride Resource Center, said the materials comprising the exhibition and collection “are a good example of the materials you can find in the SIQA project that we’ve been working on with Special Collections.” Oxford noted a few of Chamberlain’s films were shown last year at Sharp Museum. A fan’s ‘lifelong dream’ The Beatles exhibition “is the culmination of one fan’s lifelong dream,” Chamberlain said. “After 50 years of collecting, SIU has given me a venue to share vintage memorabilia published in the 1960s, and in every decade since, with the Southern Illinois community. Containing a vast array of colorful book and magazine covers, the exhibit offers a history of not just the band, but also a time capsule of an age before digital screens dominated our information intake.” Chamberlain adds that the collection has a “distinctly ‘local’ display of The Beatles’ impact on our imaginations with newsprint clippings from regional sources across four states — including St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Indianapolis Star and the Louisville Courier-Journal. Louise Harrison Caldwell died in January 2023 in Florida. She and her husband lived in Benton beginning in the late 1950s. George Harrison stayed at his sister’s home in Benton for a two-week visit in fall 1963, which included a stop at WFRX radio, where he was interviewed and the 45, “She Loves You,” was played. Five months later, the rest of America — some 73 million television viewers — saw Harrison, along with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on “The Ed Sullivan Show” as the Beatles, along with “Beatlemania,” swept the nation.